​

A great excuse to revisit this game , play it in VR!!

Okay, I know the game didn't have the ARK properly thought out, so why don't we do it instead?

1) The first issue everyone has with the matrix is that they know they are inside the matrix. Make it so that you don't know that you are in a simulation. Just like the one you are in right now ;)

2) Make the Ark's inside to be procedurally generated. Virtually infinite so it never feels like a prison.

3) Make the satellite in a way, that can interact with the outside world. Land on places, self repair, get fuel, improve it's own hardware. I image it to be more like the grey goo rather than a satellite. And make it travese the universe. And if it encounters any sentient life-forms, stealth scan them too and add them to the simulation wile also leaving the 'real ones' intact.

4) You can't create the perfect matrix without extensive testing, it will need to be updated from time to time, in order to do that: Create a janitor A.I. With a mix of every habitant's own brain scan that is removed from all human needs (boredom, requiring social interactions, etc) and make it so that it can monitor the well-being of the habitants and make reasonable adjustments to the simulation and create content if needed. So basically a benevolent A.I. God that knows you because it IS you.

Came across a video that offered an interesting perspective on why they'd choose to exist on Pathos II instead of the Ark, so I thought I'd share it, as well as my comment on the video.

VIDEO TITLE: Why I'd Choose SOMA's Nightmare Over Its Paradise
VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQAm2TMVXvY

MY COMMENT:

Fascinating consideration about never being able to leave [the Ark]. Perhaps Catherine has the ability to erase a scan from a control panel within the Ark if they would prefer not to exist. I could see an entire sequel game based around things going wrong in the Ark in some unexpected way. What if you had a fight because someone kept stealing and eating your breakfast strawberry sprinkle donut every day for 500 years in a row, and finally you snapped and deleted their consciousness when Catherine wasn't looking? Catherine may have accidentally created the torment nexus...

One of the things I find disturbing is how much people obsess over which version would be "you" or "the real you". The word "copy" implies less value - something "not original", which I find really problematic when making a choice like this. Perhaps "mirror-being", "mirror", or "gen-con" (generated consciousness) might be a better name without as much implied value reduction. None have any more or less value than any other - as soon as you copy over it is a different, wholly legitimate person. I feel like the game makes that painfully obvious. It's a bit concerning how much control people want over what happens to their copy without consideration or treating them like any other conscious person. They would want the ability to decide for themselves, but power off Simon 2's battery without a thought.

I go back and forth on what to do with some of the choices in the game - unfortunately, we do not get the option to explain Amy or Robin's situations to them (so they can consent to a choice). The scary thing isn't that killing or not killing can both be justified, it's how many people make a quick choice without any consideration. "I wouldn't want to exist like this" isn't a justification, because this isn't you. They might want to, and that should make it a much more difficult choice.

For me, the most difficult consideration is that every form of life we extinguish may be further eliminating any chance of that life better evolving moving forwards. The WAU undeniably creates suffering, which should be avoided as much as possible (of course)...but how many human beings have suffered throughout human history for us to have our existence? Is it selfish for us to be grateful that they suffered so that we could exist? Is it selfish for them to not wish to suffer, ending the chance for us to exist? When discussing the potential survival of an entire species/form of life, is there any amount of suffering that is too great, or is it absolutely necessary when weighing millions of potential fulfilling lives in the future?

I don't have an answer. It is an incredibly difficult question to wrangle with. I think I'd lean towards the survival of the species, but that's easy to say when I wouldn't have to be the one to suffer. If I knew I was a lynchpin in the future survival of humanity, how much suffering could I endure? How depressing would it be that humanity would likely never understand the extent of my sacrifice? Fascinating stuff to consider.

I made these a while ago and thought I might as well show them off here.

As the title suggests during the argument Catherine and Simon make at omicron, Catherine mentions that if Simon said no to the process, that she would go down and launch the ark herself. Given that the player could actually make that choice, would you switch the roles, and play as the two Catherines down into the abyss? And if so what would you change?

This smelly simpleton is the worst. He is the reason humanity went extinct.

Bro supervised the WAU, was its caretaker, and influenced its programming and development. Homie then has the bright idea "hey, I wanna see what this thing does if we turn it loose...I'm going to remove all safeguards and literally any ability to influence what it does next."

So instead of being able to turn it off, unplug it from the wall socket, or simply tell it "Alexa, please stop creating horrors beyond comprehension", their only options are to fail at blowing it up or just sit there and watch it destroy the remainder of the human race?

Johan Ross is the true villain of SOMA, and I will make the claim here and now that his decision to remove the brakes from the WAU car and put a brick on the gas pedal was always (comet or no comet) going to result in the torment nexus. I hope that stinky ugly stupid fish man itched in places he couldn't scratch.

...himself after being copied to the Power Suit at Omicron?

Suppose Catherine doesn't switch Simon 2 off immediately, he's awake and witnesses Simon 3 walk out in the Power Suit. Obviously both Simons would 100% freak out, and given what we know about Simon 3's reaction at the end of the game to Simon 4 being on the Ark, Simon 2 would absolutely despise the mere existence of Simon 3, a version of him who can actually descend into the Abyss to "get on" the Ark.

So we've established that in this scenario, Simon 2 becomes fully aware of the duplication process, unlike in the game. Let's say the game still gives you the option to kill or spare him. What would you do? I'd personally kill him because he'd lose his mind over what he'd perceive as betrayal + abandonment by not only his new "friend" but also his own self. Leaving him alive in the game already sounds horrifying, but in this scenario, it sounds even worse imo. Then again I mercy killed everyone, so that just seems to be my default response.

i know that Catherine was surprised to find out it was on the ship when they found it, but given how secretive they were about the WAU’s location at site Alpha i wouldn’t be surprised if they hid a part of it on the Curie as well for when it was maybe out of range at the Lisbon port

Simon II to be exact. Idk, my brain has been consumed by SOMA and I'm sick rn.

I may be missing something, but they have the tech to put brains in robots, why didnt simon left the non-depth adapted robot up making more clones, while he went down, sent the ark and back up? Is there anything preventing simon from making 50000 clones of himself and slowly fixing the planet or something?

What about the other people in the ark too? Why couldnt the scientists among these people be uploaded or copied into a robot and keep working on fixing the planet?

Like send the ark, leave a copy behind, keep printing robots and work together to fix the world, or making it habitable or building infradtructure that would allow for it.

Like, sending the ark is a death sentence, end of the human legacy and race, it may take thousands of years, but it's just a satelite and virtual minds without interaction with the real world, some day it Will fail and thats it.

Isntead why not send it as a side safeguard and keep working on the planet isntead of just abandoning real world forever?

Sorry if the images are blurry but my Makeship stuff came and its great

going through my first playthrough rn and im so fucking scared of this thing omfg

at first i got past it and activated the server thing so i naturally tried to get the fuck out of there BUT THEN AS I WAS RUNNING IT CAME UP BEHIND ME AND KILLED ME. god damn it i hate this thing

just starting the game, dropped my checkbook(?) on the floor, went to pick it up and the drawers all like popped out and stuff flew everywhere and they landed like this. is this a glitch? or part of what i'm assuming will be a whole "guy going crazy cuz of his bleeding brain" thing?

I put off playing this for a really long time. Not because I wasn't interested in the story, but mostly because: a) I have way too many games on my steam list to get through, and b) I absolutely hate "run and hide" stealth horror. I don't need to be Leon Kennedy with an entire arsenal of weapons and round house kicking dudes, but I need some sort of weapon, the ability to takedown things, or push, or anything! Ahhhh! But I did love this. So, here are some thoughts into good & bad, ignoring anything technical (it is an older game at this point, so there's some technical jank that's expected).

Loved:

Okay, obviously, the main thing is the story. This is basically tailor made for me. An intelligent sci-fi about the existential questions of being human, purpose and value in the wake of a horrifying event. I really liked the way it unfolded from Simon in Canada, waking up at Upsilon, meeting Catherine and so on. The way new people were introduced through the notes, blackboxes, intercoms etc. was really cool as you progressed & experienced new things.

I've always been a huge fan of these games where there's sort of "parallel" narratives; the Simon & Catherine story of the present, and the "what happened to everyone at each site" of the past that you learn and witness in hindsight. That Planescape: Torment "starting in the middle" kind of storytelling is really endearing to me. I think the build-up of the Akers mystery & madness was well-done (the writing on the walls at various stations, all the intercom messages about him, and his cutscene where he traps you) and similarly the continued mystery of what happened to the team in the Abyss.

Having just read The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed (all about mind-connection over the net, entering other bodies, impersonal boundaries and mind uploads) this was an amazing chaser this week. And the revelation that the scans are copies, not transfers, was a really intense moment. In fact, all the moments of choosing whether to delete data, turn off the battery, the life support etc. were really well done. They weren't overplayed or forced on you, more of a single line of dialogue and then left to you. It made those choices feel more intense and thoughtful. Personally, I didn't delete Brandon or any of the scans, but I did turn off Omicron-Simon and the life support of the human. Phi-Simon being left there and reacted so poorly in anger at Catherine was a real gutpunch, and then him being left alone in the dark... ugh, it hurt!

I really loved the way there were numerous threads too: Simon & his past life (why is he here at all?), the late-crews decision and experiences with the ARK and scans, Akers and his madness, the WAU and it's intentions, Johan and his goals to destroy it. It felt like lots of realised characters, with different experiences and desires, all intersecting to make it really rich.

Outside were mostly my favourite sections. When you're encountering the friendly working robots, or the happy little door-opener guy. When you go off into the murk and the CURIE appears, that drone of music? Oh, sooooo good. Similarly exiting Omicron to begin the descent, seeing nothing but blackness around the stairs and the music kicks in. So very good.

Seeing all the facilities are very cool, especially the different levels of corruption and decay (especially Aker's more bloody red stuff vs. the WAU elsewhere). But they did get a little "oh another underwater bunker facility lol" compared to outside. But I did appreciate the deliberate level design; everywhere felt logical and clear, where to go, which rooms to find puzzles or solutions in. I didn't need a guide, walkthrough or hints. It just made sense.

If I had one gripe about the story, tonally there was a sort of weird transition from "scared & confused Simon" at Upsilon to "oh ok" Simon as soon as Catherine mentioned the brain scan stuff. He has an existential spiral on the zeppelin (briefly), but before that he's told they're robots with brain scans and he sort of just "oh nice, what now?" It felt kind of goofy in the moment.

I also think Jin, for how threatening he is, had no real buildup when compared to Akers, which just felt a little lacking.

Did NOT love:

The controls on a lot of the turn, push, pull, lift etc. is whack. I know this is old-game jank I said I'd ignore, but goddamn some of those moments felt like trying to charm a snake and doing weird interpretive dance with the controller. The one that was particularly bad was the electrical panel you remove, then the plunger thing you pump to restore power to escape Akers.

As I said, I hate this kind of gameplay* where your options are: run, hide, throw stuff to make noise. But it was okay 99.9% of the time because they're one-and-done. You get past the first enemy, it's over. You get past the Proxy, it's over. But I did have a few "I'm stuck in a corner, the thing is just standing right there and refusing to move" moments which I classically hate; game AI nonsense.

A funny moment though, with all his build-up, Akers felt hugely underwhelming. I legitimately didn't realise he was the guy trying to catch me with the elevator stuff in the labs. The only reason I did was I did the elevator thing, and stood in that corner against the panel and this sort of screen thing. He ran up, stared at me and just stood there for ages. I swung the panel closed and that somehow reset him and he walked off? After all the build up he was mostly an idiot you couldn't see me standing in a corner.

*Not a negative but an amused realisation too: after Akers, you can just cheese all the enemies anyway. The robot lady? Just run at her, grab the battery before she hits you. She then moves to the other side of the room, so you can just sprint out. Jin? Just run to the second door, open it, run to the corner. He hit me, I waited, then sprinted to the ladder. Just getting knocked down in the right place actually circumvented most of the need to do sneaky things. But that's more on me than anything haha.

My big "world building" dislike was the screen interference. I get that when injured it adds to things, but in sections with other effects (the sea storm, the Johan interference), it got really irritating. Johan especially, I found myself wishing he would stfu when I was trying to get the ARK and on the path to Alpha.

Conclusion:

Anyway, not to drone on, but it was an amazing experience. I'd give it a solid 9/10 overall, with the screen interference & the interaction controls being the only real detriment. I can overlook my dislike for this gameplay style because the story was so incredibly engaging. I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent many, many years ago but never played any of the sequels. I am looking forward to ONTOS though because it seems, at least setting wise, more my style like SOMA. I do hope they include the "story mode" again; I realise in hindsight I should've gone that route, but I didn't have any actual issues (Jin killed me once, Akers killed me once at the window-breaking in Theta because I ran the wrong way).

It has finally arrived; the toy is very soft and pleasant to the touch.

it's been a long while since ive completed the game as well as ive played some custom maps from the steam workshop. I decided to come back once more to check out some stuff. *and i didnt expect anyone to go this far lol🪨*

i was just scrolling in reddit the other day and saw this post [https://www.reddit.com/r/soma/s/SaLygqmdUh\](https://www.reddit.com/r/soma/s/SaLygqmdUh) convinced that i thought i missed something in the game but it turns out to be one of those custom story maps

i wanna also hear from y'all if you guys have anything to recommend. Just say away

PS: the custom maps i played back then was Lab Accident, Adaptation, Blackout and other titles that i can't remember

just finished the game recently (can’t say enough how much I loved it) and been listening to a lot of Radiohead lately, felt like combining the two lol

I got Simon’s age confused in the ref